Joost

Looks like the final frame has been reached for Joost, the online video service originally started by Skype founders Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis and then eventually sold to the Adconion Media Group: Adconion today announced that it would fold in and rebrand Joost Media into smartclip, a video advertising company that it bought in November 2011.
The company says it is making the move in… Read More

Video distribution and monetization platform provider Joost, owned by Adconion Media Group since its assets were acquired in November 2009, is today announcing a global sales and technology partnership with online publishing powerhouse Demand Media.
Under the terms of the exclusive agreement, Demand Media will leverage Adconion’s video ad serving platform to deliver all premium video… Read More

Joost’s former CEO Matt Zelesko is announcing a new role today at Inform Technologies, a company that helps media companies sort and tag content on their sites. Zelesko will be taking on the role of Chief Technology Officer, overseeing all technology development and operations for the company.
Prior to joining Inform, Zelesko was CEO of video aggregator Joost. The failed video venture… Read More

Straight out of left field, the Joost Video Network has assumed the number 2 spot in comScore’s Video Metrix “Top 100 Properties”, second only to Google.
The Joost network, which is now operated by Adconion after the company’s acquisition of the ill-fated European startup’s assets back in November 2009, claims a reach of 67 million unique viewers on a monthly basis. Read More

Joost, the failed video venture started by Skype founders Janus Friis and Niklas Zennström, was put out of its misery in November 2009 when Adconion Media Group decided to pick up the remains of the company for an undisclosed sum.
Today, the international audience and content network operator is launching a suite of online video advertising products and services, targeting agencies and… Read More

Editor’s note The following guest post was written by Ashkan Karbasfrooshan, founder and CEO of WatchMojo.
Yesterday’s final implosion of video site Veoh, which declared bankruptcy after burning through $70 million of venture capital, was a long time coming. A lot of so-called smart money went into Veoh: investors included Goldman Sachs, Time Warner, Intel’s venture arm… Read More

So it’s the end of 2009 and an appropiate time to take stock. We’re not going to bore you with a long analysis of the year. Suffice it to say that funding for Europen startup tech companies remains tight. And when VCs are running out of LPs to go to, you really know it is. The VC model is still finding its feet in a market where exits are still not that clear. For many companies… Read More

Niklas Zennström, half of the infamous duo that started companies like Kazaa, Skype, Joost and Rdio, took the stage at the Le Web conference this afternoon to talk innovation in Europe and the lessons he’s learned as a European entrepreneur for the last 9 years.
Zennström said he found it encouraging to find that so many European entrepreneurs and startups are busy building… Read More

Adconion Media Group announced this morning that it has acquired certain key assets from Joost, the ill-fated online video service started by the infamous Kazaa and Skype founders Niklas Zennström and Janus Friis. The terms of the transaction were not disclosed, but it’s likely a firesale that isn’t bringing any returns to Joost’s investors.
Last June, Joost announced a… Read More

Latest Crunch Report

Yesterday, the already very public fight for Skype entered yet another round, with the publication of recent filings of a motion for preliminary injunction against former Joost CEO and Chairman Mike Volpi and Index Ventures – where the man currently works as a partner – asking that he refrain from using knowledge or confidential information he obtained while at Joost in current… Read More

The once immensely hyped and heavily-funded video company Joost continues its unceremonious journey to the deadpool.
TechCrunch Europe has learnt that the startup, famously co-founded by Skype founders Janus Friis and Niklas Zennström, put its UK subsidiary into liquidation at the beginning of this month. The reasons that are given are not all too surprising: the liquidator says the company… Read More

Niklas Zennström and Janus Friis, the two European entrepreneurs and angel investors who famously co-founded companies like Kazaa, Skype, Joost and JoltId, have played an instrumental role in setting up and funding a new music startup called Rdio, the NYTimes reported earlier this morning.
Little is known about the ‘secretive’ startup, and its website reveals nothing but the logo… Read More

The once immensely hyped and heavily-funded video company Joost continues its unceremonious journey to the deadpool.
TechCrunch Europe has learnt that the startup, famously co-founded by Skype founders Janus Friis and Niklas Zennström, put its UK subsidiary into liquidation at the beginning of this month. The reasons that are given are not all too surprising: the liquidator says the company… Read More

The Skype-eBay plot thickens. Joost and Joltid, both companies owned by Skype’s founders, have filed a lawsuit against former Joost chairman and CEO, Mike Volpi. The suit also names Index Ventures, the VC firm where Volpi is a partner. In a nutshell, the legal documents say that Volpi obtained confidential information in his role as CEO of Joost about how to circumvent Joltid’s IP. Read More

On the very same day that a certain search and Internet advertising giant based in Mountain View, California has made public its plans to soon bring to market an open-source operating system that it hopes will give Microsoft a run for its money when it comes to powering the netbooks of this world, a lone startup from Paris, France has raised millions in financing to do exactly the same thing. Read More

On the very same day that a certain search and Internet advertising giant based in Mountain View, California has made public its plans to soon bring to market an open-source operating system that it hopes will give Microsoft a run for its money when it comes to powering the netbooks of this world, a lone startup from Paris, France has raised millions in financing to do exactly the same thing. Read More

With the news surrounding the implosion of Joost and the startup’s move towards providing white label video platforms for companies, we thought it would be a good idea to check in with one of Joost’s new competitors. As we wrote in our post about Joost’s prospects as a white label video community provider, there is already plenty of competition, including Brightcove… Read More

It’s sad to see a company that we were all so excited about fade further into oblivion. Today Joost, one of the most anticipated startups in 2006/2007, is just an also ran in a sea of big online video sites like YouTube and Hulu. Today CEO Mike Volpi stepped down, the company is laying off most of staff, and refocusing the business to “white label online video platforms for… Read More

File-sharing service VIPeers has released an upgraded version of it’s peer-to-peer media discovery and sharing tool PUMP, as reported on TechCrunch France. PUMP is touted as the “iTunes for video”, but it’s exactly much more than that and rather similar to apps like Miro and Joost. Update: and Vuze.
Update: forgot to mention that you need an invite code to download… Read More

Don’t count out Joost just yet. We recently wrote it still has a heartbeat despite the fact they made the wrong bet years ago by underestimating the power of the web for watching videos. They finally switched to Flash late last year, giving up on P2P, and introduced some social networking features around the video viewing experience to battle established players like Hulu, TV.com and… Read More